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dirks

A field which covers material from the late medieval period through to the 20th century and includes particular specific subjects such as Scottish dirks, naval dirks and Third Reich dress dirks. Good reference books include The Scottish dirk by James D Forman.

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militaria item Naval dirk
- British
These dirks would have been carried by Royal Navy as well as merchant marine officers, even, rather more rarely, by army officers. This classic dirk has a whalebone haft (which, at first glance, might appear to be of walrus ivory, but on closer inspection is definitely whale bone) and iron mounts. The style of hilt, pommel and grip dates it.

militaria item NSKK dirk, RZM marked M7/68
- German
This is the SA dirk 1933 pattern, modified with a black finish to the scabbard by order of Korpsfuhrer Huhnlein in 1936. The RZM code stands for the firm Lauterjung & Co of Solingen. The top chape is engraved '15/24547' for Standarte 15, part of Nordmark Motorgruppe at Itzehoe, with the owner's personal NSKK number.

militaria item Dagger
- Bhutanese
This is an example of the daggers commonly found in Bhutan and Tibet, the latter being, on the whole, rather more elaborate. The blades are normally made of meteoric iron, as opposed to wootz steel from India. These were brought back typically from British frontier expeditions in the 19th century.

militaria item Royal Navy fighting dirk
- British
This is likely to have been made towards the end of the American Revolutionary War (Peace of Paris, 1783) or during the early part of the Napoleonic Wars (starting 1793). This would have been carried by an RN officer or HEIC naval officer, and this example is interesting in having a particularly long (approx 26") blade.

militaria item Thames river-find dagger chape
- European
This bronze chape (3cm across at the top) would have been the bottom mount of a scabbard, probably for a dagger, typically one of the classic left-hand daggers so often seen on portraits of the period with the pommel peeping out on the other side to that of the rapier. Decoration on 17th-century pieces tends to be much simpler.

militaria item Paratroop gravity knife
The left-hand knife in the top and bottom photos (with the darker grip) is a real original. The right-hand example, as well as the two centre photos, are of a modern copy, almost certainly made in Pakistan. NB: the marlin spike has an RB number identical to the original and a Luftwaffe acceptance stamp as well.

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testimonials

The package arrived today, and the two items are nice. The Mother Cross actually looks a lot better in person than in the pics.

K P, Spain, 20.06.2017

I received the sword and belt this afternoon. Always a bit of a risk buying this sort of thing online but I'm very pleased with the quality of the sword and scabbard...

P R, UK, 28.08.2014

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